| Sadequee's handover to US in 2006 illegal: HC Dhaka, Aug 26 (bdnews24.com) – The High Court has declared Bangladesh's 2006 handover of Ehsanul Islam Sadequee to US authorities illegal in absence of an extradition treaty. Sadequee was convicted of terrorism in a US court earlier this month. The bench of judges Shahidul Islam and Syeda Afsar Jahan gave the order on Wednesday upon a petition by Sardar Mohammad Sharif, the Bangladeshi father of the US-born Sadequee. Sadequee, who had come to Bangladesh on Aug 20, 2005, was arrested on Apr 17, 2006, from the capital's Baridhara area. He was reportedly handed over to the FBI three days after his arrest. Sadequee's father Sharif petitioned the High Court on May 14, 2006, challenging the legality of handing over him to the FBI, as Bangladesh and the United States had no extradition treaty. The High Court served a rule nisi upon the government the following day. Advocate TH Khan, representing the petitioner in the hearing Wednesday, said Sadequee was taken first to Japan and then to the US. Khan also claimed handing over "a Bangladeshi national" to the United States "goes against the country's independence and sovereignty". Attorney general Mahbubey Alam was also present in the High Court hearing. A US federal jury found Sadequee, an American of Bangladeshi descent, guilty on terrorism charges on Aug 13 this year. The US State Department said in a statement that Sadequee, 23, was "arrested in Bangladesh by the FBI" in 2006. He was convicted of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, including Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LET) and faces up to 60 years in federal prison, say US authorities. His sentencing in the US is scheduled for Oct. 15. According to the evidence presented during the trial in an Atlanta court, which began on August 3, 2009, Sadequee was born in Fairfax, Virginia, in 1986. He attended school in the United States, Canada, and Bangladesh. |
__._,_.___
